I thought you’d like to know Sree Sreenivasan is giving reports every 12 hours on BlogTalkRadio. He’s talking with people on the scene, the chat rooms are open and callers are welcome to report their news. It’s at 10:00 am (30 mins from now) and 10:00 pm EST.

According to Ajay Shukla of NDTV, the Indian Olympic contingent consists of 56 athletes, 42 officials. You read that right — 42 officials. Paid holiday for 42 officials. Does the Govt. of India foot the bill for these ‘officials’? If they do, it’s your and my tax money being put to ‘use’.

And how many medals are our athletes going to bring home? Anyone care to hazard a guess? My prediction is: a BIG ZERO. I’ll go a bit further… for every medal (Gold, Silver or Bronze) that India wins at the 2008 Olympics, I am going to donate Rs. 1000.00 to a charity.

I am not going to blame the athletes. It’s the country — we just don’t have an aptitude for sports.

Some screen captures of the Indian contingent at the opening ceremony: